Zynga reports a Q3 loss, with slots and poker games as top earners

Social game giant Zynga reported earnings for its third quarter ending September 30th today, and while revenues were better than expected, losses were worse than predicted.

What's particularly notable is that of the $182.4 million (GAAP) in revenue Zynga reported for the quarter, roughly 43 percent was generated by three games: Zynga Poker (19 percent) Wizard of Oz Slots (12 percent) and Hit It Rich! Slots (12 percent.)

Zynga reported a loss of $41.7 million on those earnings, which is not a good look considering the company reported a small (GAAP) profit of $3.05 million during the same quarter last year.

It's also worth noting that Zynga reported bookings (payments made in its free-to-play games) of $196.7 million for its most recent quarter. Those bookings per daily active user have increased roughly 12 percent year-over-year, suggesting players are spending more on Zynga games now than they were a year ago -- though mobile accounts for 83 percent of Zynga's bookings, up 34 percent year-over-year.

The company also reports that mobile games continue to generate the lion's share of its earnings, accounting for 80 percent (or $145.9 million) of revenue during the quarter; that's 16 percent more than mobile accounted for in the same quarter last year.

Zynga's average daily active users (DAU) and monthly active users (MAU) for the quarter both increased year-over-year, though that was mostly driven by mobile users -- the company's web DAU/MAU numbers for the quarter actually declined, further highlighting how the social game business has moved from browsers to mobile devices.